Encounters in and with Summer Camps—Happy Childhood, Alternative Bildung, or What

Bibliographic Data

ID22043599
AuthorsIuliia Afonkina (0000-0003-4201-7495, Murmansk Arctic State University), Werner Bigell (0000-0002-3859-2385, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, corresponding author), Валерий Эдуардович Черник (0000-0002-8330-8080, Murmansk Arctic State University), Torun Granstrøm Ekeland (UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Tatiana Victorovna Kuzmicheva (0000-0003-0210-798X, Murmansk Arctic State University), Kirsten Elisabeth Stien (0000-0001-5192-1991, UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Herbert Zoglowek (0000-0001-9929-5790, UiT The Arctic University of Norway)
Year2021
Volume11
Issue10
Pages567
Publication date2021-09-23
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducation Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/educsci11100567
OpenAlexW3199918424
LanguageEN
References cited13

Although they commonly are associated with recreation, summer camps for children can be seen as educational arenas that both supplement and challenge school education. Summer camps provide education in a broad sense of bildung. The article aims at describing what is experienced in summer camps and proposes various theoretical frames for these bildung processes. The main focus is on summer camps in Russia, and we interviewed Russian informants who participated in summer camps. The findings were that learning in the camps tends to be non-instrumental, allowing room for play and experimentation for both pupils and teachers. Social learning is marked by collective elements such as camp rituals and spontaneous solidarity, both forming an individual personality. Outdoor activities are important because they connect children to nature and develop a sense of place marked by biophilia. Furthermore, nature’s materiality creates a sense of being in the world, which means developing a sense of multiple relational settings, spanning from the materialities of geography, place, and objects to experiencing new social settings in the form of solidarity, ritual, and friendship

Aesthetics · Art · Bildung · Friendship · Humanities · Outdoor education · Pedagogy · Recreation · Sense of place · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking · Outdoor and Experiential Education · Psychology · Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management · Social Psychology · Ecology

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